Old Mole Variety Hour

The Old Mole burrows down to the roots of the great issues of our time – the struggles of ordinary people for democratic and sustainable ways of life. The Mole goes where corporate media fear to tread, supporting grassroots challenges to top-down authority and giving voice to movements that shake the foundations of an unjust society. The Moles' perspective is democratic, broadly socialist, and feminist. (We count Karl Marx as a friend).

left activism old and new and newer, football, psychology of climate change, more

Frann Michel hosts the first Old Mole of the new year, which will include these segments:

Bill Resnick talks with sociologist and activist Alan Sears, author of The Next New Left: The History of the Future.
They discuss how the 60-70s uprisings and radicalism were followed by a period of passivity and fear, and then speculate about today's movements and struggles that could well give birth to the next new left.

Audio

Oregonians will be voting on two state tax measures that increase what corporations and wealthy individuals contribute to State government. Steve Novick from the Yes For Oregon campaign talks with the Old Mole's Bill Resnick about what the measures would do and the fallacies in the arguments of the opposition. You can contact the campaign at 411 N.E. 19th Ave. Portland, OR 97232 | 503-234-0444 or through their website.

James Cameron's new blockbuster movie Avatar has been widely debated: what is it really saying about people with disabilities, the environment, racism, colonialism, and other important social questions? Our Movie Moles Frann Michel and Denise Morris have a rousing good time taking down the pretensions of this huge movie phenomenon. Their blog has lots of quotes from and citations of the ongoing discussion of the film.

Can electricity be produced locally where it can be controlled by local communities? Yes, claims Judy Barnes of Oregonians For Renewable Energy Policy in this conversation with Bill Resnick. She points to the example of Germany where it is possible for residents to sell back to the system the energy they produce themselves with solar panels or windmills -- or maybe even by riding their stationary bikes! Barnes will be speaking at a Community Forum on Building a Green Oregon, Saturday, January 16 and the First Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Salmon, starting at 10 am.

Alain Badiou enunciates the communist hypothesis:The subordination of labor to a dominant class, (whether it be a class of capitalists or a class of party bureaucrats)is not inevitable.If so, then the existence of a coercive state, with the violent policing we heard about at the beginning of this show, is not inevitable either.Here is the Old Mole’s Frann Michel making the case for this hypothesis, and for the courage to weather the hard times of struggle. You can read the text and find her sources here.

Hosted by Clayton Morgareidge, this first show of 2010 proposes that another, better world is possible. Portland writer Kristian Williams tells Bill Resnick what it would take to provide domestic security without violent policing. Clayton reflects on the recent terrorist attempt on an airliner to find connections between terrorism and the frustration of social connection. Psychologist Felix Warneken describes experiments showing that toddlers want to help others -- indicating that humanity is capable of living cooperatively. And Frann Michel explains Alain Badiou's "communist hypothesis": that the subordination of labor to a dominant class is not inevitable.

For information about our theme music and our graphics, go to our main page. You can follow us on Twitter, and see us on Facebook.

To hear the whole show (and how all the pieces hang together and support each other), use the play button below. To hear individual pieces and find more information, follow these links:

Are human beings capable of living in a better society in which cooperation predominates over competition? Harvard psychologist Felix Warneken discusses experiments showing that kids of 18 months have a spontaneous impulse to help others in need. More about this here.

Examining the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young Nigerian man who tried set off an explosion on a plane from Amsterdam as it approached Detroit on Christmas day, Clayton Morgareidge suggests that terrorist acts can result from the frustration of the democratic desire for solidarity. For the text of this commentary and links to sources, go here.

It's convenient to have the Old Mole audio files available.
Even more useful for some of us would be transcripts of the commentaries (Clayton Morgareidge). Written material allows a person a chance to review, consider, digest and refer to mentioned references & thinkers. The "Well Read Red" commentary from 4 Aug 08 is a good example of a piece I'd like to read at my own pace.